Chapter 4: Dispute

As I walked, I found that I was becoming more and more confident. At the end of the hall, I could hear King humming the Rocky theme song. I turned to look at him as I kept walking when suddenly, I walked face first into the edge of the wall next to me. "Ow!" I yelled.

King's laughter could be heard down the hall. 'That's gonna leave a mark.' I thought as I held my nose. Looking down the hall, I could see that Jamila was sitting in the Calm Area, listening to classical music. She was flipping through a magazine and rolling her eyes at the pages.

I approached carefully, almost as if I was walking up to a ferocious lion. She looked up and as soon as she saw me, she gave me a stare that made me want to turn around. Stupidly, I did turn around. 'What am I doing?' I asked before I spun back around to face her. She was still staring at me.

I got so nervous, that I turned my back to her again. I thought to myself, 'Okay, just take a deep breath. It's only a woman. A woman who seems to hate me and who likes to wear red leather body suits and trench coats, who probably is packing heat under those clothes, who hates me, who is probably STILL staring at me, who is wondering what in the name of a mother I am doing, who hates me- Whatever. I'm going to do this.'

As soon as I spun around, I noticed that she was gone. If this were a western, a tumbleweed would have passed by in front of me accompanied by the sound of wind and dust. But this wasn't a western it was real life. "Man this is just like a story I read once on I yelled as I walked down the hall to find Jamila again.

I got to another corner, and there were no windows, so it was pretty dark. I took a deep breath and walked into the darkness. As soon as I entered the darkness, a rough hand gripped around my throat. I gasped in shock as I tried to catch my breath. Just then, I heard Destiny's Child Lose My Breath come on around the corner in the Calm Area. How ironic.

The hand pushed me back into the light, causing me to trip over my own feet and hit the ground beneath me. The person who choked me walked into the sunlight. It was Jamila.

"Why are you following me?" she said as I gulped in some air.

After catching my breath, I looked up to her sleek form and said, "Whoa easy lady!" She gave me a death look. "Um…I mean ma'am…" I corrected myself as I looked to the floor, standing up.

Jamila tossed her hair over her shoulder as she opened her trench coat. I looked inside and saw a silver gun. I froze as she pointed at me.

"Wait! I'm only eighteen1 I haven't lived a full life yet!" I cowered, closing my eyes and holding me head. I heard a shot ring out, and the sound of metal. 'Am I still…alive?' I thought as I looked up.

Jamila was holding the smoking gun in her hand. Then I heard the sound of a robot shutting down. I turned around to see a Jack robot, one of the hotel's security laying on the floor with a bullet hole in its forehead.

"I hate machines." Jamila said as she put her gun back in her belt.

"Yeah…um, how come that bullet wasn't that loud?" I asked her.

"You've never heard of a Silencer?" she said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Why have you been following me?" Jamila asked me.

"I can explain everyth-" Jamila interrupted.

"Explain."

"Okaaaay. I just wanted to make peace with you. I don't understand why you hate me so much, I don't even know you. This is something that I would expect from Sylvia, but then again, Tiffanie would always tell me to ignore-"

"You're ranting." She told me as she cut me off again.

"Right. Sorry." I said. I put my hands on my hips and looked at her features. She was as exquisite as a white rose, and as fair as a diamond.

"What are you looking at?" she said as I looked her up and down.

"Oh. Sorry. So anyways, are we at peace now?" I held my hand out to her, waiting for her to shake it.

"Whatever." Was all she said as she bumped past me and walked down the hall. "There. Now you can stop following me." She said, not even making eye contact.

'Your mama!' I thought in a sing-song voice. Some women just seem so impossible. I wonder who's worse, Jamila or Sylvia?